Randomness

          A small time gangster decides to leave behind everything that was once his and start a brand new life with the country girl his parents had arranged marriage for him. Don’t exactly remember the years, but three kids later, I was born. It was not a very classic love story but that was how the story was. Four more kids followed but two died as an infant. But this part of the story is not for today.

Title: Random Me

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas 

Size: 30x24 Inches 

Price: Please contact the artist directly. 

Signed and dated at the bottom left hand corner. 

          I was born so tiny that to imagine growing up as a man sounded like a joke, of course it was a good joke.  Then I found my second love within the lines and pages of some random book my big sister bought and it stayed. Soon, I started keeping journal but most of the pages ended up blank. I started writing down some random stories but never got completed. That was the love story.

          Year 1997, a civil riot divided our family into three. My father, my mom and me. My father; because he couldn’t quit his job, so he stayed with my older brother and sister who were in college. My mom; because it was not safe to stay in the town with the civil riot gaining momentum, so she shifted to our now permanent place with my two little brothers. And me; because I had to swap places between mom and dad’s because I was through quarter at school where my dad was and also trying to adjust shifting to a new school where mom relocated. Now it’s all settled.

          Physics was what I should have and math is what I graduated with. It all happened in New Delhi. Then my first love decided to come back again in my life. As expected, we fell madly in love again, romancing between colors and canvas. I quit my job. The journey continues.

          Last Word: Randomness is everywhere and this life we live is a very small part of this very big randomness, I think.

Uncomfortable Silence

          In the past few days, uncomfortable silence has slowly crept in into my world and with it; I am withering, smaller within myself like the Touch-Me-Not flower that had just been touch. Many things that were once mine seems to distance away and I ended up being a mere spectator to the show, but I seem to not liking it, unfortunately. Some of my private galaxies were been blown to bits. I have tried visiting them in my head but then, the small debris from the impact keeps hitting me, it wasn’t comfortable. 10x times, increased my lighting up cigarette. It seems to produce a nice red flame and beautiful smoke rings but from the inside it’s eating me up hollow. 10x times, the rate of my sleep decreased. It seems to give me more time but I found myself with no time. As Charlie Chaplin would say, my lips didn’t know what’s happening with me. It just keeps smiling. But the clouds were slowly forming; now it’s thick and dark. Like an overblown balloon, you never know when it’s going to burst. It’s just clinging on to its final elasticity. It will burst soon…

BAMMM!!!

Title: The Forlorn Man 

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 30x24 Inches 

Price: Please contact the artist directly.

Signed and dated at the bottom right hand corner. 

          Music!!! Because that’s all I was left with and Silence!!! Because everything turned painfully silent. Painting!!! Because it’s the only one thing that had not betrayed me and Me!!! Because I seem to barely know myself. Voids were left behind and boundaries being drawn. It was not a word said but it said it all with a piercing thrust. So I tried to withdraw but unfortunately, so did a big chunk of life from the inside. I wasn’t ready for it but it happened and things were never the same anymore. Uncomfortable silence spread; soon it took over most of the things that were once the first thing of the day and finally weaned me like a baby. Options were clear; but options I didn’t want to choose. I needed a hideaway.

          As the world came crashing in from, it seems, every direction, questions started to bang my door. I didn’t open. As the confusion over shadowed, I was left to talking to myself. It was no comfort but it seems to be the only comfort. Silence was what was killing me from the inside but silence was all that was found. Memories became more vivid, but this time they wanted to haunt. Somewhere unknown, a Black-Hole was created and it was doing what it should. There seems to be no escape from it, except that you run as far away as possible. But this was a black hole unlike any and it catches up soon. I was tired out running. It’s like one of those days when I am painting and couldn’t decide upon what color to use; those times when disaster always happens in my works. You never know what to expect. You are only hoping for the best when its finish. This is a lonely place and I am an artist inside it. I have problems telling my story and that’s why I paint. I just keep telling myself, “I will get over it”.

          Last Word: All these are over now it seems and in a few days, I will be meeting my family. I am so excited about it. I have been missing my mom so very much lately. I can’t seem to even remember her face now…

Where am I?

         Ever wondered how big our Universe is? I do that a lot of time and every time I do, it always takes me back to where it started. They say it all started with a Bang and then never stopped. Now even our most brilliant scientist finds it almost impossible to even study. Of course, I will not describe how big or how unimaginable its size is or what’s happening inside. Leave that to Stephen Hawking, I am no expert. But yes, my love for the Universe goes way back, just that, I never had in me to become a scientist. Whatever!!! I just wanted to show you how big I am in this very big vast space that surrounds us. Maybe I am wrong.

Title: On The Horizon

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 36x24

Price: Please contact the artist directly.

Signed and dated at the right hand bottom corner.

 April, 1912.

 

          Four days after she left Southampton, UK, on her trip to New York, US, she hit an ice berg and sank. The date was 15 and yes, it’s the Titanic story. It was her maiden voyage and she carried with her 2,224 passengers and crew. 1502 people died just because there weren’t enough life boats for everyone. Yes we have seen the movie and some of our girls cried the whole North Atlantic Ocean out of the movie. But this isn’t Titanic’s story remember? Okay then, we continue…

          Our scientist estimates that our Universe might contain as much as 500 billion galaxies and among one of them is our very own “The Milky Way”, which is supposed to contain approximately 200-400 billion stars. Whatever that figures means, I’ll just take it as something that we shouldn’t even try counting. Now, I’ll not even try to get into light years, I might end up getting exploded (lol).

          Figure says, Titanic was 882 feet and 9 inches long and 92 feet and 6 inches wide (wow!!! That’s huge). 106,400,000 km² is the size of the whole Atlantic Ocean (That’s where the Titanic sank). With this numbers in mind, we take The Milky Way as our tragic Titanic and the whole of the Atlantic Ocean as our Universe. Now, our Solar System, wow!!! It’s almost invincible. Earth!!! Where is Earth? Oh! There it is. It’s visible only through the microscope. Yay!!!

          But wait!!! Where am I??? Where am I??? Where am I???.............

          That’s the fact. I am nothing at all in the whole universe and so are you. Still we say, “I’m this”, “I have done that”; “My name is”, “My father was”; “Who are you?”, “You are nothing”. That’s our ego and we are even proud of it. Does this make any sense at all? Yes it does and that is shame.

          Last word: I know it was not the perfect metaphor. The Universe is still expanding and we are getting even smaller. Ahahaha… Be blessed :)

One Cold Winter Night

          The place where I come from, we never get to see the snow and the minimum temperature it can drop during the winter would be around 4°C. And now it would be unfair on my part to even try to explain how cold a winter can get and by the way, our winter here is almost over when I am writing this. So I will not even try to do that. But yes, I would want you to come with me on a walk through some streets one cold winter night.

Title: The Sleep 

Medium: Oil on Canvas 

Size: 30x24 Inches 

Sold to a private collector from UK

Signed and dated at the bottom right hand corner. 

           If you ever have had the opportunity to walk through the crowded streets of New Delhi before, you will know what I mean. But if you haven’t, here is what it looks like. As you would have already guessed it, it’s always crowded and honestly, it’s not even very safe to walk but the irony is, you are even at your worst if you are driving. It’s almost like a circus show where a person throws knife at an apple placed on another person’s head as the bull’s-eye. You are never safe. One moment, a car will honked at you when it’s almost about to hit you and the next moment you realized a beggar is pulling you from behind (you can even say molesting) for just a two rupee coin. Don’t fall for that unless you have a million in coins. One moment you will realize that you just got hit by a motorbike on a bicycle lane (Yes that happens) and the next moment, someone just pulled you to a corner to show you branded Ray-Ban goggles that you can buy it at “Only For You” price. Of course it’s a fake. And if you are a foreigner or a tourist, God himself will find it hard to save you from all the Auto Drivers and Rickshawpullers (but this I will leave it as homework for you to find it out for yourself). But then, the winter night sets in. Now we walk.

          The streets become deserted; fogs rule the roads and some stray dogs cuddle up somewhere in the corners for some sleepless night because of the cold. It’s just the starting. Soon, another layer of coldness will swipe over, that will be near enough to wipe out anything on its way. And then another layer, that will leave the bones of the stray dogs to chatter. Now the show starts and until the first light of the morning takes over and wipe out what just happened last night. You know these layers I am talking about. You have had the taste of its chill even with your warm clothes on and beneath the roof. But somewhere down these streets where we are walking right now, in some corners, someone is taking the same cold with a different degree of coldness as a cut on their skins. Another person is trying hard not to chatter his teeth because it makes him feel even more colder. One kid is shivering so bad that it might even wake up the person next to him. A mother is trying hard to warm her child, but she seems to run out of heat herself. What they need? No!!! They don’t have the strength to think right now. They are too busy trying hard not to be in the list of people who, “Seven people reported death last night due to the cold wave that swipe through the capital”. 

          Now, my painting doesn’t tell the story of any this people. Nor does it tell the story of what their suffering is or what they need. It was a painting I did here in winter when the cold was at its lowest and a theme based on a winter night when sleeping inside the warm blanket seems like the only comfort left in the whole world. But, that doesn’t mean, their story is not worth telling. It’s a shame that the government seems to be doing nothing for them and even these filthy rich are too busy attending late night parties. And it’s even a shame on me that these are the people who had pulled me for a 2 rupee coin, overcharged me for a rickshaw ride and enticed me for “Only For you” price for some fake Ray-Ban goggles during the day. I hope you like our walk. Stay warm.

Last Words: An original piece, but I must admit, certain aspects of this artwork is inspired by another work, in terms of positioning. More than that, it's an original creation.